


Mother?

by VenomQuill



Category: Original Work, Watching the World Burn: Corrupted
Genre: Character Death, Gen, The world in the perspective of very young semi-aquatic dragons, cane dragons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 21:03:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16103741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenomQuill/pseuds/VenomQuill
Summary: Cane dragons are inquisitive and friendly creatures by nature--especially babies and adolescents. Mother cane dragons are the fiercest dragons on Yosime, surpassing even bull wyverns (who are known cannibals and extremely territorial) in strength and hate when their young are threatened. They're amazing swimmers and completely piscivorous, mainly eating saltwater fish but sometimes freshwater fish.





	Mother?

**Author's Note:**

> See it on dA: http://fav.me/dcntvgb

The wind, salty and warm, slipped into a cave, buffeting its occupants in damp warmth. Three bodies, brown and crocodilian, were settled in a nest of silks of all colors in a cave spattered with glimmering objects. Most interesting, though, was not the metal that gleamed like their mother’s wet scales or silk soft enough to fall asleep way too easily in. No, it was the salty wind and bright light that filtered in through the entrance to the cave. Unfortunately, the nest was buried deep in a U-bend to prevent anything from seeing her nest–or from them seeing the outside.

The middle one watched the entrance with round eyes just a deep a brown as her mother’s. The wind carried exciting smells, and their mother had just left. When she left, she left for a while! Then again, when she came back, she always had lots of tasty fish and sometimes some really fascinating little things made from shiny stuff she could stare at for hours or soft stuff she could fall asleep in. But right now, Mother wasn’t home. Being the eldest and obviously the most smart and the most strong, it was her turn to decide what they did.

She looked down and prodded her closer brother with her paw. The baby cane dragon twitched his paws and shifted. She prodded him again. He shook his head. She bopped him on the nose and head and shoulder until finally he relented and sat up. She turned around and looked to their youngest brother. He was smaller, but right now he was dead asleep. So, she hopped up onto her back legs and fell on top of him.

The youngest squealed and thrashed until she climbed off him. She chirped and walked to the door, her overly large and currently useless wings held up and tail waving. Her middle brother hopped to his paws and followed. Unfortunately, the youngest cried and flattened himself to the silk bed. The two older siblings looked at each other. He was the wimpy one. But she couldn’t go out alone or with just her middle brother. So, she tromped over to her youngest brother and pulled him up to his paws by his neck. He let out another squeal and, once she let go, took a step back. However, he was standing. So, with a happy chirp, she hopped to the edge of their nest, siblings behind her.

As she set her paw down on the floor outside of her nest, and she looked up into the gaping maw choked by shadow, the thought of going back into their nest and waiting for Mother to show up again stopped her. But, upon feeling her impatient brother behind her, she marched out of the nest and ventured into the tunnel. She wouldn’t be shown up by her brother, no way! She was the oldest and most strong and most smart. She had to take the lead!

Eventually, that lead took them around the bend. All three of the cubs stopped, staring at the scene before them. A giant light swallowed up the exit to the tunnel. She looked back at her siblings and took a few tentative steps forward until she was at the wall of light. Then, she raised her paw and walked into the light.

Soft floor like that of silk only really gritty was the first thing she felt beneath her paws. As she blinked the light out of her eyes, she stared upon the world she’d never known existed. The ceiling was really, really, really high up and a very pretty shade of blue. Fluffy white interrupted the blue sometimes, as well as the dense wall of gray farther away. Then there was the light brown of the ground. Just a paw step away, long, thin gold-green lines erupted from the ground and covered quite a bit of her sight. They were so tall, she couldn’t see past them!

Her middle brother inched outside, wide eyes gazing at the same beauty she saw. Eventually, the youngest sibling trailed behind them, belly on the floor.

She sniffed. The salty, wet smell was stronger! It was delicious. She pushed up from the ground and stood on her back paws. From this vantage point, she could see over the yellow lines and saw something even better: an entire flat space full of blue farther than her eyes could even imagine seeing. It was much more interesting than the gray wall above and behind them that held their cave and the rippling gold on either side.

She fell onto her front paws and, with a happy chirp, plowed a straight line to the big blue. Her siblings were very close, both spooked by her departure and excited at her tone.

Finally, they erupted from the golden lines and their paws fell onto smooth, sifting ground. The yellowish, brownish ground shifted beneath their weight just like their beds. But this was gritty, and this was really warm–like when Mother’s heat warmed their nest! But she couldn’t think about her nest and how funny the ground felt. She saw the blue. Up close, it looked a bit funny. It constantly shifted. Blue lined with white would creep up through the yellow-brown and then fall back, immediately being replaced by another wave. It was hypnotic, watching the waves push and pull in and out. Eventually, she felt her brother nudge her.

Broken out of the spell, she shook her head and bounded toward the blue waves. They swirled around her paws as she landed into them. Warmth and coolness seeped into her paws. A very foreign feeling stole her front paws and crept up her wrists. It felt a lot like Mother’s spit–which she’d been careful to cover them in every time she left–but it was thinner. It wasn’t sticky and it wasn’t familiar, but it was nice.

She chirped and splashed around in the waves, flapping her wings and digging into the ground to watch the gritty floor bloom like smoke beneath her paws. Her middle brother joined her, happily leaping and twirling and running through the shallow, warm water. Eventually, the youngest crept up to the shoreline and pawed at the waves.

Then, she stuck her whole head into the water. The taste of salt immediately bathed her tongue. She snorted, feeling the storm of bubbles slip past her smooth, scaly forehead. She looked through the water, under the waves. Light filtered down into the beach, shining on rocks and plant life and sea life. Soon, though, a new feeling came to her. A really, really bad feeling that started in her chest. Upon instinct, she drew her head back and spat out the water. The pain was gone as she took gasping breaths and snorted the water out of her nostrils.

Eventually, the sky became pretty dark. That massive gray wall in the sky had chased away all the little fluffy white things and all the bright blue and even that really shiny white thing she couldn’t stare at for too long. The waves got choppier and sloshed over the shore. They pushed and pulled at her with a bit more fervor and the white crests on the shoreline were more vibrant as more water was shoved onto land. Her little brother–though he’d been splashing around the shore–got out of the water and backed up into the tall yellow lines where he crouched and watched the sky. Her middle brother stopped splashing around as well and looked to her. Well… what was the problem? So, the water was a bit pushier. That didn’t matter. It was still water and it was still fun, and she still wasn’t going to be a scaredy mouse in front of her brothers!

Then, as they continued to play, the sky was really dark, and all the blue was gone. Little drops of water fell and spattered the ground. She cooed and looked up. One such a drop hit her in the eye. She shook her head but looked back up, intrigued. This water wasn’t tangy and salty. It was fresher and much cooler.

Then, the darkness was swept away by a giant white glow. The entire sky roared at them louder than their mother could ever yell.

The baby dragons screamed. Their youngest brother turned and fled back to the mountain, stumbling over his own large, clumsy paws as he did so. Her middle brother ran out of the water, wings spread wide and claws digging into the sand to propel him. Although she tried to follow, her paw slipped on a rather wide, salt-worn rock and she let out a wail. Her head dipped below the waves, but just for a moment before she shoved herself out. Both paws slid as the water grabbed her and yanked her back and down. That really bad feeling swelled up in her chest again. She struggled and looked around at the world around her. It was no longer light and blissful. The water was dark and harrowing and cold.

She burst out of the waves and, taking in large breaths of air, held high her wings and shoved the water back with her paws. She was able to keep her head above the surface, but her legs were getting really tired. She heard a loud, long wail that she knew belonged to her brother. She turned toward it and, spotting the gray mass that held their cave, pushed toward it. Her tail dragged uselessly behind herself and her wings were really heavy by now.

More water dumped on her head. She gasped and coughed as water streamed down her head and into her mouth and nostrils. The sky was falling! Not only that, but the ocean behind her reared up and opened its mouth, its foamy lips curled back for as long as she could see and dark throat clogged with water. She gasped as the ocean swallowed her.

By now, it was too dark to see where she was going or what she was doing. But she did feel the tug of air in her chest. She flipped herself over and struggled to follow the direction the air in her chest wanted her to go. Finally, she was able to burst out of the waves with a great gasp. But, as she searched for the stone of her home, she couldn’t find it. She let out a long, shrill wail. She didn’t care if her brothers thought she was scared–she was!

She wailed again, struggling to keep her head up. The waves shoved and pulled and tried to drag her down. The sky was still pouring water, making each wail prematurely cut off as she spat out water.

Then, something that wasn’t water touched her belly and thrashing legs. The rain stopped hitting her head. She shook her head and looked up, seeing only the scaly, gold-brown neck and chin of a dragon. She let out another cry, this time of relief, and struggled to nuzzle her. Then, she realized that she didn’t recognize this scale pattern. She knew her mother’s pattern, and this wasn’t her pattern.

The dragon looked down at her with murky brown eyes, much too dark to be Mother’s. The younger, pregnant dragoness opened her mouth and dove, shoving the baby dragoness under. Although she’d been in her mother’s mouth before–she sometimes carried them from their lightly shiny nest to another nest even grander than their own–this wasn’t like that. This wasn’t even like the time she saw down the throat of the yellow-winged dragon whom Mother nuzzled when he dropped a whole pile of fish in front of her and her siblings.

The pregnant dragons swam deeper and deeper into the dark. Her paws and wings were pressed to her body. Her whole body moved in a wavy fashion so her tail propelled her. Oh, if only she knew about this trick before.

The bad feeling was back, and this time it was worse. As she struggled to leave the mature dragon’s grasp, the dragoness spat her out. The baby struggled to swim up, only to be grabbed and shoved into the sand by a to-be mother.

Just as she though she couldn’t bear the pain any longer, the pregnant dragoness let go. Another set of jaws snapped down on the pregnant one’s throat. There was a short struggle as two mothers clashed under the waves, and blood immediately clouded the water. Soon after the older, stronger mother engaged the first-time mother, the pregnant one stopped trying altogether as she fled, her horns cracked, half a foot missing, and a good chunk out of her tail gone as well.

By now, the pain the baby dragon felt was ebbing and the cold water around her had seeped through her scales. Normally, she’d start to shiver, but this time… this time she couldn’t. She didn’t have the energy.

**Author's Note:**

> Canes are solitary mothers, meaning mothers care for their young but males do not. Females will occasionally visit males, and males will visit their young just after hatching when they need their mother's heat but can't handle her fire. Once babies are old enough to produce their own heat or survive longer without another source, the male will quit visiting. Once they get old enough, the mother will chase him out. Where they normally meet is dependant on their horde. If the male has a larger horde, the mother brings her hatchlings to him. If the mother has a larger horde, he visits her.
> 
> Cane dragons kill competition. Males often kill babies not their own and pregnant females go around killing babies that aren't being watched. After laying her eggs, she stops attacking and instead focuses on keeping her own babies alive.
> 
> Also, canes are the best swimmers of the winged dragons (wyverns, true dragons, amphitheres) as I based them off crocodiles with longer legs and necks that are more flexible, and wings.
> 
> The dragons are based on a fantasy book I wrote: "Watching the World Burn: Corrupted"! Check it out on Amazon; look for Julie Kate Autumn!


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